The Black Hole's Teeth
by The Mad Habberdasher
Summary: An incident involving the Borg and a black hole launch Kirk and his crew into an entirely different universe.
1. Pursuit

Disclaimer: Star Trek…it's not mine. If it was there'd be more lightsabers in it. And, as it turns out, there are plenty of lightsabers in Star Wars. That one's not mine either.

The Black Hole's Teeth

Chapter One: Pursuit

_Captain's Log: There's no time for a damn captain's log._

"Sir, shields are down to 40%," Ensign Chekov said in his rough Russian accent. He was sitting at his station in front of the view screen and beside Lieutenant Sulu. The Ops station, it was already sparking, and Captain James Tiberius Kirk was surprised the panel hadn't exploded in Chekov's face. But, Chekov was a soldier, one of the best, and he wasn't about to abandon his station.

The ship rocked as another blast of energy splattered across the shields. The ship couldn't take much more of this and Scotty was giving the engines absolutely everything he could. Warp 9.8, the fastest a Constitution-Class starship had ever gone, and still their pursuers were gaining.

"Spock," Kirk said, spinning in his chair to look back at the science station. "How are they firing forward phasers at warp speed?"

"I don't know, Captain," Spock said. His face was drawn and tired. He was a Vulcan, and wasn't supposed to show emotion, but stress was running high among the crew members, and Spock was feeling it too.

"It's not logical," Spock said. "Phasers move at the speed of light, warp speed is faster than the speed of light. Their phasers should splash back on them." Spock said, finishing his thought.

Kirk shook his head, and spun back around to the view screen. It was displaying the view behind the ship. Normally, star lines would be the only thing showing, but they were blocked out. A huge cube made of pieces of jagged metal, twisting tubes, and an unearthly green glow was seventy-five yards off their tail.

Kirk shuddered.

"Try hailing them again," Kirk said. He didn't have to look back to know that Uhura bent immediately to work, trying to make contact with the strange vessel. She shook her head.

"All I'm getting is the same message over and over again." Uhura said. "They're broadcasting it on all channels."

"Play it," Kirk said. "Audio only."

He looked at the view screen, watched the cube ship, and listened to the haunting message one more time.

"We are the Borg. Resistance is futile."

It didn't sound like one voice speaking, but a hundred times a hundred times a hundred speaking all at once.

"We are the Borg. Resistance is futile."

And, the pure hell of the situation was simple. They were right. Kirk, his crew, the Enterprise, everyone and everything had given one hundred and ten percent and their resistance had proved futile. It was the Kobiashi Maru all over again.

"Arm and drop two photon torpedoes out the back tubes," Kirk said, leaning forward in his seat. "Set them to detonate at two different frequencies."

"Aye, Captain," Chekov said. He worked his instrument panel, sending Kirk's orders down to the armament room. The modifications would have to be made directly to the photon's on board computers.

"And, try a shifting phaser sequence," Kirk said. His eyes were shining in the dim light of the bridge. It was the Kobiashi Maru scenario to Kirk, and he was a man who beat it.

"Phasers are ready, Captain," Chekov said.

"Fire!" Kirk said.

The rear phasers opened up roaring back at the Borg ship at the speed of light. The first two lances did no damage whatsoever, spreading across the ship's shields like twisting bolts of lightning. The second two cut through the shields, digging long black marks over the surface of the ship.

"Yes!" Kirk said, jumping up out of his chair…just in time for another one of the Cube's phaser blasts to strike the Enterprise. Kirk went reeling, head over heels, right into the Ops stations support head first. His body went limp.

Chekov's station finally erupted in his face. Sparks flew and flesh burned, but the young Russian managed to twist his face away, and dive out of the seat. Smoke rose from where he lay on the floor.

Spock stepped onto the command platform and placed himself in the Captain's chair. It was logical as he was the First Officer. He hit a button on the arm of the chair and spoke: "We need a medical team on the bridge, now."

His voice boomed through the halls of the ship, and was cut short when another blast disabled communications.

"Mr. Spock," Sulu said twisting in his seat. "I'm reading a massive gravitational anomaly."

"Try to sling shot around it," Spock said. His mind was running on overdrive. He didn't quite consider all the possibilities.

Sulu nodded, and began to angle in to the gravitational anomaly. The ship shuddered under the change in course. The hull plates were stressed to the max, the engines pushed far beyond the red line. If internal communications weren't down Scotty would be yelling at the bridge. Two more panels exploded. At least one more bridge officer was fatally wounded. The fate of Kirk and Chekov was still unknown.

"Sir," a man wearing a red shirt said from the left side of the bridge. He was manning the auxiliary weapons consol, another that looked to be leaking everything known to man. "Torpedo bay reports ready."

"Good," Spock said. He stared at the image of the massive Borg Cube on the screen. This vessel, space station, whatever it should be called, that came out of nowhere. It attacked, and Kirk being Kirk fought back. Now everything was uncertain. A sling shot maneuver around the gravitational anomaly might be what they need to get away, but how would they stop it? How could Starfleet stop it? Spock almost shuddered at the thought.

"Give me a ten beam pharser spread, rotating spectrum," Spock said. "Aim at anything that looks like a shield generator. Then put the torpedoes down its throat."

"Aye, sir," the crewman said, and turned back to his consol. Spock watched the light show on the view screen. Every third phaser strike made it through the Borg shields, causing little volcano like eruptions along its sides. Were they critical hits? Only the human's God knows.

"Fire torpedoes!" Spock said as soon as the tenth phaser burst splattered across the Borg shields.

Two white hot orbs raced out of the rear of the ship, charging towards the Borg cube neck and neck. One exploded, splattering on the reactive shielding like a bug on a windshield. The other passed through, connected with the vessel, and blossomed like a vibrant fire colored flower. The force of one hundred, twenty-five megaton nuclear bombs was released, and one quarter of the Borg vessel was eliminated in the blink of an eye.

Spock let a smile twitch at his lips. Kirk's hunch paid off.

Then every warning klaxon on the ship went off at once. The Enterprise shuddered far more violently than any of the Borg attacks. Irrationality won Spock over for a moment, and he was convinced the Enterprise was coming apart.

"Report," Spock said, turning to look at Sulu, his moment of irrationality passed.

"We've been dragged out of warp, sir," Sulu said. His face paled as he looked at his instruments. His jaw worked up and down but no sound came out.

"What is it?" Spock asked. Another crewmen reported the Borg ship had been yanked out of warp speed as well.

"You're not going to like this," Sulu said. Without being told the lieutenant flipped the view from rear to forward, and he was right. Logic aside, Spock didn't like what he saw one bit.

A black hole had dragged them out of warp, and now it was sucking them down it's deep well.

"Oh, shit." Spock said.


	2. Passage

Disclaimer: Star Trek…it's not mine. If it was there'd be more lightsabers in it. And, as it turns out, there are plenty of lightsabers in Star Wars. That one's not mine either.

Chapter 2: Passage

Unit K78 of the K700 series jerked loose from his alcove. His eye was glazed and stung from the smoke in the air, but his original nature had been Klingon, and his new nature cared little for pain. Eye stinging or not, K78 would perform his duties. He was as close to being the captain as the Borg Matrix would allow. His duties were close inspection of navigation, weapons control, and achievement of primary target. K78 had even been the one to start the ripple in the pool of the Matrix's thoughts.

Cut off the head of the snake to kill the body.

The Enterprise.

The Queen had been right to try and assimilate the Earth of the past, but she'd been wrong about the time. K78 proposed assimilating the Enterprise of the Federation snake, but not the A, B, C, D, or E version of the ship. The original. The Enterprise NCC-1701 captained by James Tiberius Kirk. Assimilate that ship, stopping its descendents from causing havoc with the Matrix, and the Earth would fall.

K78, and the entirety of the Matrix, believed this Enterprise would be an easy conquest, not having the integral information Jean Luc Picard had gained when he became Locutus of Borg, but they had been wrong. Underestimating their opponent once again. The crew of this Enterprise was more resilient than expected, they had even managed to figure out a way around the reactive shielding far faster than any species before them. Even faster than their counter parts on the Enterprise D.

If emotion hadn't been completely erased from his programming, K78 would have been angry. He would have felt the sting of failure. As it was, he felt nothing.

He walked down the hall, his heavy boots and improvements clanking on the grated floor. He walked past sparking conduits and a pile of dead drones before reaching one of the thousands of computer consoles. He plugged in, and the damage report filled his mind.

9000 Borg, dead.

87 sections breached.

Shield Generators all but gone.

15,000 wounded.

Loosing atmosphere and life support systems.

And, there was black hole looming before them.

The engines were shot, fried when the cube was jerked out of warp speed, and the transwarp coil had split in two. Options for survival were non-existent. There wasn't even enough power left in the transporters to beam onto the Enterprise, not that the pathetic excuse for a human ship would fair much better than the cube.

The little ship still had power though, had managed to swing their nose around and put all of their tiny might into escaping the black hole. A millisecond of calculations told K78 the ship wouldn't escape the black holes grasp. Not even if they dumped their warp core and tried to ride the shock wave out of harms way. The muscles twitched around K78's lips. The Klingon in him wanted to smile and laugh at the fate of the fabled Enterprise, even though he'd not been able to best them in battle.

The console K78 was connected to went wile, and the Borg "captain" knew why without checking his uplink or the ships systems. The damage done to the ship was fatal. Had they not been so close to the black hole, repairs would be easy. The ship shuddered and started to collapse as it was drawn in. Through the eyes of the Matrix he watched as drones were thrown out into space, as great jagged chunks of his vessel were ripped and shredded by the gravitational force.

K78 closed that eye, and opened another. He was inside what was left of the navigation computer. He set one last course: Ramming speed down the black hole's throat.

He closed that eye, and opened it in weapon's control. Only half the weapons were still viable, but he only needed one. With a single thought he engaged a tractor beam.

K78 opened his real eye, and watched as his console was torn out into space. He looked down the black hole's gullet, and couldn't help but laugh. It was a series of great guffaws.

"Today," he said, his Klingon voice thick and powerful. "Is a good day to die."

:***:

They have us in a tractor beam," Hikaru Sulu said. He was hunched over his board, trying to find a single vector that would allow them to escape from the black hole. It was impossible. "We're being drug in Mr. Spock."

Spock didn't say anything. He let the comment roll right off his back. He had himself under control again. "Mr. Sulu, bring us around one-hundred and eighty degrees, engines at maximum."

"Aye sir," Sulu said. His face was grim, lips bent, eyebrows furrowed. His hands worked the controls. Again, every member of the crew could feel the great ship groaning and the hull plates stretching as the Enterprise tried to follow the commands of the First Officer. The movement on the view screen was slow, but stars began to appear like the light at the end of the tunnel.

"Great Scott," Dr. Leonard McCoy said the moment he stepped out of the turbolift. His eyes were wide and glassy with awe and fear as he looked at the view screen.

"Doctor," Spock said turning to look at McCoy. "The Captain and Ensign Chekov require medical attention."

"They require a lot more than that," McCoy said. He braced himself on the rail that ran around the center of the bridge.

"We've beat a black hole before," Spock said. It wasn't just encouragement. It was fact. "We've beat the Borg. They won't drag us into the hole with them." Spock turned to the red shirt at auxiliary weapon's control. "Prepare phasers on a rotating frequency, target that tractor beam generator."

Spock looked back at McCoy and cocked an eyebrow. His lips were pursed, and McCoy thought he looked smug.

"I can't, sir," the red shirt said.

"What?" Spock said turning to face the red shirt. McCoy saw the change as surprise replaced smug.

"The phaser banks are fried, sir," the red shirt said. "From the last volley."

"Prepare torpedoes, then," Spock said.

"We don't have that much time," Sulu said.

Spock's eyebrow twitched, and he spun back to the front of the bridge. The Borg ship was breaking up as it went in. Chunks as large as the Enterprise were stretched until they were spaghetti thin, and seemed those thing strands of ship took forever to slide down the black hole's throat. He knew what the affect was, gravity. That was all. If they couldn't do something—if he couldn't do something—the Enterprise would undergo the same noodle treatment. Spock looked at Kirk's prone form and damned him for putting him in this position.

"Swing us around," Spock said. He walked to the Captain's chair and sat down. "Engage engines at maximum warp."

"Mr. Spock?" Sulu twisted to look back at the Vulcan. His face was opened like a book, fear and surprise, maybe even a little betrayal, could be read there.

"Sling shot, Mr. Sulu," Spock said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "We're going to sling shot around the black hole, just as we planned."

"Aye, sir," Sulu said. He set about his work, swinging the ship around, back towards the black hole, and engaged maximum warp. The black hole grew.

Author's note: Sorry about the length of time it took to put this up. I'm trying to find a way to be able to get a chapter up at least once a week, preferably on Friday or Saturday. But, with my chaotic work schedule it's hard to find time to work on this and my original work. Hopefully we'll get something lined out.


	3. Drifting

Chapter 3: Drifting

Kirk let out a low deep throated groan, and blinked twice before he was able to see, and only one eye seemed to be working. The other was filled with a blinding white light.

"Pupilary contractions are normal," Leonard McCoy said, taking his pen light away from Kirk's face. The captain blinked again, clearing the dots. "He's got a hairline fracture in two of the vertebra on his neck and a hell of a bump on his head, but he'll live. Chekov on the other hand."

"Chekov," Kirk said, he shook his head winced at the action, and looked up at McCoy and Spock, who was standing right behind the doctor. "What happened to Chekov? What happened to my ship?"

"The doctor will be able to update you on Ensign Chekov's condition," Spock said. He looked down at Kirk then towards the viewscreen. "As for what happened to the Enterprise, I am unaware. We were being drawn into a black hole, and now we cannot get any sensor readings at all."

"I don't remember a black hole," Kirk said. He stood up, stretched his arms and legs, trying to get rid of the muscle tightness, thought about cracking his neck and decided against it. Agitating a broken neck wasn't the best idea. But, black holes…

"Yes, Captain," Spock said. "You were unconscious when we located it, but it seems to have disappeared."

"Like with the Romulans?" Kirk said, slowly twisting his head to look at Spock. "It collapsed on itself?"

"No, sir," Sulu answered. Kirk turned to look at him and cocked his head to one side. He grimaced as pain bubbled out of his neck. "The black hole just disappeared. It was there, we were dead in its maw, and then it was gone."

"Well…" Kirk said. His head still ached, he still felt blind in one eye, but he was starting to take in sensory information. The bridge was a wreck, worse than it had been before he went unconscious. Panels, officers, pipes, and electronics were hanging out all around the room, and the chances of all those officers being alive was slim. The veiwscreen was dead with a great chunk missing out of the corner. And, the lights, the lights were gone, only the emergency lights were working.

"Where are we?" Kirk finally said.

"I don't know," Sulu said, he looked at the screen, just stared at it. His arm was covered in blood from the shoulder down, staining his yellow shirt a reddish-black color. Kirk looked to Spock. Spock always had answers, this time, the Vulcan just shook his head. "McCoy?"

"Jim," McCoy said straightening, and looping his tricorder strap over his head. "The most I know is we're alive. Some"—he motioned towards Chekov—"are in worse shape than others."

"What happened?"

"Are you familiar with the old comic books?" McCoy asked, bending down to Chekov and laying one hand on the ensign's shoulder. Chekov groaned from the contact, but McCoy pulled, rolling him over onto his back. McCoy went on without Kirk answering.

"There was a comic book series about a man called Batman, he had a villain called Two-Face. Two-Face was a district attorney who pissed off a criminal. The criminal pitched acid in his face during a trial, and burnt half of the district attorney's face away…"

Kirk stepped around McCoy and looked down at Chekov. What he saw would be forever burnt into his memory. And, it was burnt into Chekov's face as well, exactly half of it was a black ruin, cracked and pitted like solidified lava. Some skin had broken away, leaving the vibrant reds of muscle, the grayish tan color of tendons, and the white of bone. His eyelid had been cooked away entirely, and the orb in the socket was a milky white. It rolled to the sound of McCoy's voice, but there was no way it could be seeing anything.

"That's what happened to our young Ensign Chekov," McCoy finished. Kirk could feel his lower lip drooping, but snapped it back up. He couldn't be caught gaping at Chekov. The ensign's other eye, blue as a crystal clear lake, opened and found Kirk's gaze.

"Did we get them, captain?" The Russian accent was still thick, but it was accompanied by the dry crackling of burnt flesh.

Kirk let a glance slide towards Spock, and the Vulcan gave the slightest of nods.

"Yeah," Kirk said. "Yeah, we got the bastards."

Chekov smiled. It was a corpse grin.

"Now, ensign," McCoy said. "I'm going to give you a sedative. That will keep you asleep until we can get you to sick bay."

Chekov tried to nod, but the grimace told everyone in attendance the motion was too much. McCoy applied the hypo, and Chekov's eye closed again. The milky one rolled towards the top of the socket. Kirk expected his chest to stop moving, but it kept the slow steady rhythm of sleep.

"How long will he survive like that?" Uhura asked. Kirk turned to look at her, and she was as beautiful as always, minus the inch long gash in her forehead and the blood running freely down her face.

_What did we get into?_ Kirk asked himself.

"As long as I can get him to sickbay he'll live," McCoy said. "The prospects are dim beyond that."

Kirk turned to the captain's chair, strode over to it, and lowered himself into it. He tried internal communications, and didn't even get a dead line. He tried another button, and another, and another, none of them worked. None of them had power. Like the lights, they were all dead.

"Primary power…" Spock started.

"Is out," Kirk finished. "What's left?"

"Life support seems to be the only functional system," Spock said. "The turbolifts are nonoperational, sensors, communications, weapons systems…"

"All nonoperational," Kirk said. He could feel the eyes on him. Sulu, McCoy, Uhura, all the other living officers on the bridge, even Spock, all of them were looking at him, expecting him to have the answers. Kirk sighed, but wasn't without ideas.

One button worked on the captain's chair. The button farthest from the end of the arm. It popped open a little cubby hole in the arm. Inside were two items: a phaser, and a handheld communicator. Kirk pulled the communicator out.

"Mr. Scott," Kirk called into the little device after its opening chime. "Engineering, do you read me?"

Static.

"Mr. Scott, do you read me?"

Static.

"Bridge to Engineering."

"Aye captain," a battered sounding Scottish voice replied. "I'm still alive down here. I can't say the same for most of my men."

"I understand, Scotty," Kirk said. "Is there any way you can perform an engineering miracle for me?"

"Systems all around the ship are down, Captain," Scotty said.

"And, we need them back as soon as possible, Mr. Scott," Kirk said.

"Understood, sir," Scotty said. "Anyway we can get medical attention down on the Engineering deck."

"I'll see what I can do," Kirk said looking at McCoy. "Bridge out."

Kirk flipped the communicator closed and looked around at the remaining bridge crew. His eyes lingered on Chekov.

"We have to get the Enterprise back in working order as soon as possible," Kirk said, stating the obvious. "Mr. Sulu, I want you to organize sweep teams. We need to know if any of those Borg things made it onto the ship in the confusion. Mr. Spock, I want to know what happened. Use handhelds to collaborate with anybody you need to, tell me where we are and what happened to the black hole and the Borg ship. Bones, medical sweeps across the ship, death toll, wounded, round up as many people as you need, and get Chekov to sickbay, use the Jefferies Tubes to move around the ship."

"Yes, sir," the three of them snapped. McCoy looked a little squeamish about the Jefferies Tubes order, but understood like any officer.

Kirk sighed again. If only he knew what was beyond the walls of the ship.

The Enterprise drifted in the middle of a debris field. The remains of the Borg cube, both of them existing in a foreign galaxy they weren't meant to be in. A galaxy far far away.


	4. Damage Report

Chapter 4: Damage Report

Kirk climbed up out of the Jefferies Tube hatch, and dusted himself off. It was good to be back on the bridge, after the sadness and death he'd seen as he toured the ship. These were his people, and so many of them had died. Kirk let out a sigh, and made his way to the captain's chair. He didn't sit down, though. He didn't feel he deserved to sit in it.

The handheld communicator beeped, and Kirk pulled the gold and black box up to his lips.

"Kirk answering."

"Primary power restored, captain," Scotty said. A wide grin spread over Kirk's face as the lights on the bridge shifted from emergency levels to full lighting. Kirk's smile went away almost instantly. Now he could see the full depth of damage inflicted on the bridge.

"That's great news, Scotty," Kirk said. "What kind of time frame are we looking at on getting the ship running at full capacity?"

"With the spare parts we have," Scotty said and paused. Kirk knew the news was bad. "Never, captain."

Kirk pursed his lips, walked around to Chekov's station and slumped into the chair. He looked at the exploded panel that stole half of his friends face, and maybe his life.

"That's not what I wanted to hear," Kirk said.

"I know, Captain," Scotty said. "But, without more parts there's nothing I can do."

"Understood," Kirk said. He looked forward at the blank viewscreen and felt blind. He couldn't see what was out there, couldn't see what was happening around him or where he was. "Scotty."

"Yes, captain?" Scotty said, the grim note lifting from his voice. "Is there something I can help you with?"

The bridge crew had gathered, back on the bridge, a place none of them had been too in the last eight hours. Each and every one of them were exhausted, having spent their time helping out on the ship below them.

Spock had been drafted as a nurse for sickbay, and had spent most his time tending to Chekov's wounds. He felt he'd made great progress in repairing the young ensign. But, Chekov wasn't up here. He'd been ordered to bed rest by the Doctor, who was up here on the bridge.

Scotty was kneeling in front of the viewscreen with three of its panels removed. His hands were moving in slow methodical movements, and it struck Spock as a type of foreplay. Scotty loved nothing as much as he loved the Enterprise. It was something Spock couldn't wrap his brain around.

Kirk passed impatiently back and forth in front of the captain's chair. His boots clanking on the metal floor plates was a mild irritation. Kirk was eager, anticipating the revival of the viewscreen. He wanted to see stars, Spock realized, and the Vulcan had to admit he wanted to see them too. He felt as blind as a, well… the vorak wasn't blind anymore. They didn't exist anymore, they'd died with Vulcan. So, Spock reasserted logic, and told himself he was not blind, the Enterprise was.

There was a flicker across the screen, then another, and finally the viewscreen crackled to life. It was black at first, then white, then the black void of space filled it with its tiny pinpricks of starlight. Not too far distant was a sun with a small number of planets orbiting it. From this distance Spock couldn't tell how many though. There was a collective sigh from the bridge crew, from Spock too, even though he hadn't known he was holding his breath.

Then the viewscreen blacked out again. Scotty dropped back to the floor, was about to start playing with the components again…

"Wait," Kirk said, pointing at Scotty. His eyes, however, were studying the far left corner of the screen. Spock looked and found starlight down at the very edge.

"Do we have sensors back?" Kirk asked.

"Aye, captain," Scotty said.

Spock moved even before Kirk gave the order. He was at the science station, getting a readout of everything around the ship. Information about the Borg, and about the black hole.

"We appear to be in a rather large debris field." Spock said. He read several more lines. "Sensor scans show it to be comprised of mostly metal with a very small amount of lifesign readings. Too make an educated guess, I'd say it was the Borg."

"What about the black hole?" Kirk asked.

"I have no readings on the black hole, captain," Spock said.

Kirk nodded.

"Sulu, what's the status of the navigational computer?"

Sulu looked down at his screen, it was still black, though he'd started the console up three times. He shook his head. "I can't connect with it, sir," he said.

Kirk nodded again. "Mr. Scott, same question."

"Completely fried, captain," Scott said. "There's nothing in it salvageable, and we don't have a replacement system on board." Scotty shook his head.

"Right," Kirk said, staring at the viewscreen. "Do you think anything on there is salvageable.?"

"Maybe," Scott said.

"Spock?" Kirk said, turning to the first officer.

"It's entirely possible," Spock said. He wrapped his arms around his back, linking them at the wrists. He nodded again. "Even as they were being drawn into the black hold our sensors showed them affecting repair."

Kirk nodded. "Alright then, Scotty get me a group of engineers, and prep a shuttle. Mr. Spock, you have the bridge."

"I don't think so," Bones said, tapping Kirk on the shoulder. "You've got hairline fractures at the base of your skull, and in your neck. Too much banging around and those will spread, and you'll be dead, Jim."

Spock watched as Kirk turned to the doctor. The Vulcan expected some kind of reaction, anger maybe, but Kirk paled. A cloud of responsibility floated around his head. And, it was his job, his responsibility, to see his crew home safely. He couldn't do that dead.

"I'll take command of the mission," Spock said. "Being the science officer, I'm better suited for the job. Mr. Scott, I'll need you to accompany me."

"Aye, sir."

Kirk looked at Spock for one long moment; then nodded. 'Come back alive,' that nod said.

K78 did not need to breath, he could go for a period of seventy-eight hours before it became a necessity. He did not need to move, and he did not need to eat. He was perfectly comfortable in a vacuum. What he wasn't comfortable with was the silence in his head. He was an individual again, floating lost and alone in an ocean of quiet. For the first time since his assimilation, fear gripped him.

That is why he didn't move from his corner when the small group of humans boarded his tiny chunk of the cube. They were dressed in air tight suits, one off them was blue, the rest were red, and his implant communicator could easily pick up their inferior communication technology.

"This is the weirdest piece of machine I've ever seen," Montgomery Scott said, his electronic call tagged him as such. "Everything's mixed into one… piece."

"It does appear seamless," Spock, the Vulcan, said.

They eyed different parts of the cube chunk, and K78 knew what they were doing. It was a salvage operation. They moved down the corridor, and K78 followed. He kept his footsteps soft, as hard as that was on a metal floor, but the reawakened Klingon portion of his mind wanted to announce itself, and engage the men in a battle for what remained of his ship.

In this situation, logic and the better part of valor prevailed. Besides, any part of his ship they took could easily be tracked, should it become necessary. K78 didn't see how any of it could be necessary. His ship was slag. His crew was gone. And, he was cut off from The Collective. He could hardly comprehend why he wasn't revealing himself to the humans as a suicide tactic.

The away team continued down the corridor to the only door left on this chunk of the ship. They passed four dead Borg on the way.

"What the hell are these things?" Scotty said, bending down to look at one corpse.

"It appears to be a Vulcan…" Spock said, his eyes were locked on the pointy ears. "That has been modified by the addition of various bits of technology and machinery. I find it… offensive."

Scotty nodded.

"We should probably transport them back to the Enterprise for further study." One of the other engineers said. Spock nodded. They placed a small metal beacon on the body, it started blinking.

K78 stared at the beacon, and wondered if he should allow the crew of the Enterprise the pleasure of dissecting a Borg corpse. A blue field enveloped the assimilated Vulcan, and vanished as if it had never been there.

The away team finally moved down the hall to the door K78 had predicted they would find. They tried to translate the writing on it. It took a minute, but they gave up, and used a crowbar to open the door.

"I think this is what we need," Scotty said. He was looking at a large cylindrical computer in the largest remaining room on the chunk. It was the navigation computer, K78 realized, and the away team was going to install it on the Enterprise. A wide Klingon smile spread across his face. Hunting the Enterprise would be easy. Now all he needed was a ship and a crew.

A/N: So, I kind of messed up a wee bit. Instead of doing the smart thing and making sure I got these ready to post on the day they were actually supposed to post, I didn't. Instead, I've got them here right now. Two chapters that I'm going to post, because I didn't think ahead enough to put them up when _they were supposed to go up._ Just had to put that out there. Sorry about the problems.


	5. Inhabited

Chapter 5: Inhabited

"Captain," Scotty said over the internal communications array. That had been the third thing fixed on the ship. Kirk loved the clear digital sound, the ringing of the syllables in Scotty's voice. Not because Montgomery Scott had a pretty voice, but because of what he was about to say.

"Go ahead, Mr. Scott," Kirk said. He sat back in his chair, his fingers bouncing on the arm. It was anticipation. He couldn't wait for it.

"We have the main engine back online," Scotty said. "And, we're ready to restore full power to the ship. We're just waiting for the go ahead."

"The go ahead is given," Kirk said, and like that the bridge of the Enterprise became a flower in bloom. Consoles flickered to life, the lights came up to their greatest illumination, and the pops and whistles of a bridge at work greeted him like an old friend.

The bridge crew cheered. And, Kirk let them. Three days of darkness and fear, and now the lights had come back on. The crew deserved their celebration.

But, there were other things.

"Mr. Sulu," Kirk said. "Patch into our new hardware and plot the quickest route home. We need to alert Starfleet to our condition, and warn them of a possible attack by the Borg."

"Yes, sir," Sulu said, turning back to his console.

"Mr. Spock," Kirk said. "Scan the wreckage of the Borg ship for any life signs, or further bits of useful technology. And, see if you can tell me where that black hole went."

"Yes, sir," Spock said. "Though, logic would imply the distinct lack of possibilities for life to have survived on the Borg ship."

"Just want to make abso…"

"Captain," Sulu said, cutting Kirk off in mid sentence.

"What is it?"

"The navigational computer doesn't recognize the distribution of stars. It can't find any points of reference in our database, or in the one we stole from the Borg." The color drained from Sulu's face as he spoke, and a strange sort of fear crept into the Asian officer's eyes. "The computer doesn't know where we are."

"What?" Kirk said. The color form his face had drained as well and the look on his face betrayed the amount of stress he'd been under. The feeling of helplessness was back.

The Enterprise was drifting in an unknown part of space, and…

"Seventy-eight million years," Spock said. He spun his chair around and looked at Kirk. "From this point, that is how long it would take us to get home. At maximum warp, of course."

"How?" Kirk said.

"I used the sensors to analyze the stars around us. Then based on…"

"Spock," Kirk said. "I really didn't want an answer to that."

"Oh," Spock said.

"Yeah," Kirk said. "Seventy-eight million years to get home." He looked at the screen again, and sat further back in his chair.

"Ten million billions to the tenth power," Spock said. "A rough estimate of the number of lightyears it is from here to Earth."

"Great," Kirk said. "The black hole…"

"Must have acted like a wormhole, sir," Sulu said. He looked at the screen and the debris floating around the vessel. "Like it did with the Romulans, but, instead of taking us through time. It took us through space."

"Very astute," Mr. Sulu," Spock said. His tone held a pinch of condescension.

Kirk heard it, and gave the Vulcan a sharp look, but Sulu was oblivious.

"What do we do now?" Uhura asked.

Kirk almost jumped out of his skin. He'd become absorbed, not in Spock and Sulu's conversation, but with the viewscreen, with the unfamiliar stars that hung all around them. Each of them represented one thing: endless possibilities, and each of those held hope. Kirk looked from the viewscreen and back at Uhura.

He looked at her for a minute, and a genuine smile spread across his face. One that transformed into the cock sure grin Uhura was a little more familiar with.

"We explore," Kirk said. He stood up, and walked around behind the captain's chair. "Broadcast this all over the ship."

Uhura nodded, and flipped the necessary switches on her console. She nodded, and Kirk looked back at the viewscreen.

"This is the captain speaking," Kirk said. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled as he listened to his own voice. There was anticipation there, moving below his skin like blood. He wanted to say these words, as bad as he wanted to hear them said. "Mr. Spock and Mr. Sulu have just informed me that we are ten million billions to the tenth power in number of lightyears away from Earth. The trip, at maximum warp, I'm told, would take seventy-eight million years.

"To many of you, this might be the worst news you've ever heard. I hope you change your mind about that. This is the Final Frontier, we really have gone where no man has gone before.

"I plan on continuing our mission. I plan to keep exploring and meeting new lifeforms and new civilizations. And, I will hold onto hope, and I will hold onto the Earth and the Federation.

"We will see them again, and we'll have some damned good stories to tell. Kirk out."

Uhura cut the comm line, but before it went dead Kirk thought he heard applause.

"Inspiring," Spock said.

Kirk turned and looked at the Vulcan. There was a grim look on Spock's face, worse than it usually was. Kirk smiled.

"You think I can't follow through?" Kirk said. The sentence floated in the land between question and statement.

"Logically, I fail to see how you can promise a return to Earth." Spock said.

Kirk shrugged, and felt like a prophet as he twisted his seat around and dropped into it. "We are in a vastly different place, Spock. Who knows, they might have the technology to send us back to Earth before dinner time."

Spock resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"And, part of our mission is exploration." Kirk finished.

"And, what do you plan to explore first?"

"I dunno," Kirk said. He turned back to the viewscreen, and sat with one hand cupping his chin. "I want a full sensor sweep. Show me the closest inhabitable planet. Preferably one that's already inhabited."

"Aye sir," Spock said. He spun his chair back around to the science console. There might be doubt in the Vulcan, but he would o his duties. And, he would stand by Kirk's side.

"Sulu," Kirk said. "Get into that alien nav computer and see if it can intuitively learn the set up of the stars, and any possible course adjustments. I'd hate it if we had to put all of this in manually."

"Yes, sir," Sulu said. His hands began to move, and Kirk watched as he worked.

The captain found himself in an interesting place. He was in charge of everything on the ship. He could delegate away tasks with nobody questioning him. But, up here on the bridge, in his chair, he was a knot on a log. He wanted to be doing something. Anything, besides sitting here.

"Captain," Spock said, turning in his chair and looking over his shoulder. "I've found an M-class world. I detected life, and high signs of energy, but I am unable to tell if it is a civilization or not. I'm sending the sensor readouts to Mr. Sulu."

"I've got them," Sulu said. His eyes moved across the small screen in front of him and he was nodding. "I can feed these into the nav computer and get the coordinates. Not sure if the trip will be as exact as you might want."

"Not a problem," Kirk said. "Just get us there."

"Aye sir," Sulu said.

"Warp five, Mr. Sulu," Kirk said. He smiled. "And watch out for any pot holes. Engage."

A/N: If I might have a moment of your time, I can point out two locations you might like if you enjoy my work. The first is HubPages... search for me there, my name is RyanSmith86. I do reviews, random articles about writing, and occasionally I'll post short stories. The other location is Facebook. I would put a link here, and would scramble it. So, instead, check out my profile page, and you'll find a link to my Facebook page, which you should like. That would be cool with me.


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